Interesting starter information about the mythic lost tribes of Israel here for those who are curious about it. This subject is necessary to know about only for a contextual understanding of human conversation and historical reading, or for a study of religious folkloric literary devices. Completely unimportant for any other reasons.
The Difference Between Healthy Fantasy and Dangerous Cults
A group of wide-eyed young Mormons stopped by the other day. I couldn’t help but come into contact with them, for I was already outside, doing some writing and enjoying a good cigar. They seemed like nice enough guys and there was no way I was going to get away with not at least having to say hello to them. They come through our neighborhood at least once every few weeks. From the outside they seem like just about as normal and average American youth as you can get. Well-attired, clean cut, polite and friendly. Regardless of what I was doing, and no matter how much I really didn’t want to engage with these kids — for I was deeply immersed in what I was doing at the time, there was just no way I was going to get away with not at least saying hello to them. And so I did. Though I didn’t look up from my laptop, figuring that might be an easy fix to not having to engage fully with them for an extended period of time. I am well aware that the majority of people these pubescent traveling missionaries come into contact with on the streets and in the neighborhoods of modern America avoid them like the plague, and though I get that — no one invites them into their space; they are by all accounts unwelcomed invaders into our personal space in this very modern world — I also see the advantage of unplanned spontaneous person to person contact with strangers now and then. We just never know when the universe is going to drop some unexpected miracle into our lives. How else would we know of it unless we stay open enough to allow such occurrences to transpire occasionally?
So rather than shoo these short haired, short-sleeve starched-white shirt wearing boys away as most people tend to do, I felt the least I could do was be polite, say hello back to them & listen to what they had to say. I did warn them that if their intention was to stay committed to the faith of their upbringing that speaking to me would be the last thing in the world that they should probably do. But they laughed off my warning and came over to where I was sitting. Frankly once we were past the uncomfortable tension of me calling out how ridiculous the very foundation of the Mormon religion is, I enjoyed our ensuing conversation and their company. I was intrigued and impressed with their youthful vigor and their eager longing to proselytize what they take to be the “Word of God”. The whole time of course I was very very aware that in reality the beliefs and so called doctrines of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (it’s formal name) is nothing but the word of a shameless, ego-maniacal huckster pathologically addicted to not telling the truth, the infamous Joseph Smith.
If you aren’t familiar with this particular “religion”, do yourself a favor and check into it. At least enough to know what it is and what it’s about. It’s important. Even if you aren’t a religious or spiritual person, remember for a moment that former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a Mormon. So too is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Mormonism, or LDS as it is called for short, is a surprisingly widespread and popular religion in the United States, especially in the West. If it were your average run of the mill Christian denomination, with a shade or two of different colors splashed here or there for texture, ala Methodists or Baptists, one might not feel that it would matter that much. America for better or worse is still largely a Christian nation (albeit with plenty of dissension and “texture” to be sure), and we assume that no matter what one calls it, it still falls under the Judeo-Christian-Muslim monotheistic God category. There’s a certain safety in that I suppose — (but from a larger perspective, considering how much pain and suffering Christianity has caused humanity through its history, I’m not so sure that this safety is implicitly warranted…) But there’s a certain safety even in finding out someone is a self-professed atheist or agnostic. At least we know where they stand. We know they’re intelligent and that they’ve got their head on straight and can think for themselves.
But here’s the rub: Mormonism is no average, run of the mill Christian denomination. In fact, it’s not even a Christian religion. I had always heard rumors. Attempted to read the Book of Mormon a few times. Found the basic premise of the first few pages ridiculous, so I always put it down rather quickly. But this time, I was so moved by my encounter with these young men and their sincerity, I promised them that I would look into it more. And look into I did. I easily spent 40 hours researching the Mormon faith, it’s history, it’s dogma and doctrines. They seemed so absolutely sold on it. Maybe there was something there I thought…. As always I left no stone unturned. But what I continued to find was shocking. A far more complicated and convoluted belief system than your average Hollywood SciFi movie frankly. All sorts of gods living on different planets with strange made up names roaming through space, each taking multiple wives. Real crackpot stuff. Similar to both Scientology and the Jehova’s Witness organizations. Fantasy stuff. But with one difference: it is said to be and purported to be “the word of God”.
[With Mormonism this is an oxymoron, because they don’t actually believe in ONE god, but many gods who at one point “created” the one god most of humanity is familiar with, Elohim. SO this is clearly not even a monotheistic religion number one and therefore they cannot purport that their texts are “the word of god”. We would constantly have to be asking them “which GOD is this the word of?” The other problem here is that we know academically, based on the etymology of the word “Elohim”, that it is a plural word and was originally meant to describe multiple gods, not just “one” god. Going all the way back to the Sumerian culture. This is THE basic problem with almost all things Mormon: the large majority of it’s doctrinal beliefs stem from supposed visions that their “prophet” Joseph Smith had back in the 1830s when there was no internet and well, you could possibly fool some of the people all of the time…. But in this day and age, scholars have discovered that nearly everything Smith claimed was just flat out wrong. He was either a really bad guesser or an unscrupulous liar. For example there’s a good chance that young Smith used this word “Elohim” to describe this “new god” that the other gods created and didn’t even know the real definition and origin of the word as we do today. This is just one of hundreds of examples of historical and scholarly facts that Smith got wrong and that prove without a shadow of a doubt that he was certainly no prophet.)]
Instead what we find is a man so wanton in ethics, morals and scruples that it is hard to believe that he even existed. History is challenged to find examples of people so overtly willing to make things up and pretend they’re true as this guy was. Yet an entire religion is based around his silly books. It’s astounding. He seems more the stuff of legend, rather than real life flesh and blood. Historically this is a man whose entire life from start to finish was a fraud, nearly everything he said or wrote was either plagiarized or just made up BUT passed off as (not only) his own works, but the “work of God translated through him”.
I spent about fifteen to twenty minutes in total with the young Mormon missionaries. I shared with them my own experiences with The Divine through the years and what a marvelous and miraculous experience it is indeed. I also encouraged them to continue to study and learn on their own and to not take anything related to God or the Spirit from the mouths of other men or from books, but instead realize and accept that God has the ability to and does communicate with us if our heart is longing for it (and sometimes even when it’s not) and that He/She/It will reveal themselves to us if we focus on that intention. I also shared with them my view that God, The Divine, is plenty large enough to encompass ALL of the various inventions of “God” that humankind has come up with through the millennia. This is something I wholeheartedly believe — that for the most part, human beings are safe in regards to how and where they were raised, that God’s love is infinite for us all — for are we not all but little pieces of Godness in the end (physically speaking)? As well that God would also be infinitely intelligent: He/She/It is smart enough to accept and encompass ALL the various incarnations of “God” that humanity has ever or can ever dream up — meaning that no one has to worry about there being “one true god” or “one true religion” in the end, for in the end God will sort it out and accept every soul with an equal amount of love and adoration.
But I must admit, this Mormon cult is one frighteningly crazy group. One of the strangest belief systems I have ever studied, period, or even heard of, (Scientology included). Just out of this world cuckoo stuff. I really don’t get how people are led this far astray out there into lala land. I found myself wondering just how open God truly is when it comes to Mormons… I suppose if we stick with the basic premise that God is unconditional love and forgiveness and truly understands the heart of all humankind (and even all conscious or sentient beings, human or not), with the same love and understanding that we tend to give unto ourselves, that he will even find compassion and understanding and acceptance of Mormons — especially if they’re heart is in the right place. (Not that I personally believe that is a prerequisite to receive God’s love. I don’t. But that’s another story.) But what of the LEADERS of the Mormon faith? The ones who KNOW and fully understand how full of shit it is? Does God afford them the same forgiving heart? Give them the same benefit of the doubt? I wonder.
The same thing happened to me when I researched the Jehovah’s Witness religion. Again, we are led to believe that they are “just another protestant denomination of the Christian faith”, but that is far from the truth; it’s utter rubbish. A scam perpetrated on the masses who just never bother to check it out. Jehovah’s Witnesses is another one of those non-christian cults disguised under the flag of Christendom just to easily gain followers who are familiar with or grew up with “Christian” values and ideas. When studying the beliefs and history of the Jehovah’s Witness organization I was so taken aback by the horrendous nature of their twisted views that I found it very hard to believe that such a thing even exists legally as a religion. A science fiction or horror film? Okay sure. But a legal religion? Not possible. Yet it is.
So repugnant and so skewed the Jehovah’s Witness ideology is that as I studied it I was overwhelmed by a treacherous feeling, something truly evil lurking in the room, or at least in consciousness. I don’t say this lightly. It was palpable, something dark, heavy and wicked. I decided that I had learned enough and put away the need to learn anymore. I felt very uncomfortable, as if I was slowly being absorbed by some kind of dark evil force. True story. Perhaps I was just tired and my imagination was getting the best of me. But so what? Something either is prone to make us feel good, or make us feel bad. In all matters we should attempt to set our sights and our attention on the things that make us feel good. In turn we will have that same effect on the world around us.
Consider for a moment that the whole Jackson family were and are Jehovah’s Witnesses…. Poor Michael, if he were raised with those kinds of ideas, didn’t stand a chance at feeling the joy of God’s love, which is a very sad thing; considering what a beautiful soul he seemed to be at times (despite his alleged various weaknesses…). I wonder what life might have been like for him had he known the kind of love and support that I myself have experienced through the years from the Christian faith…
Being The Ambassador carries with it a natural inclination to feel very open minded when it comes to people of all cultures and faith traditions. I must admit that I am not often turned off or offended by, nor critical or judgmental of people who don’t have the same beliefs that I do. If anything I find this interesting, intriguing and life affirming. But I just can’t help but feel critical of the founders and present day “leaders” of the Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness faith traditions now that I have sat down and learned about what they actually believe in and teach; for not only are they flat out crazy and ridiculous and fantastical, but they are also blatantly false, fallacious, erroneous and fraudulent. Worst of all, this practice of spreading these kinds of rigid rules and laws that govern the whole of a person’s life based on the destiny of their very soul is flat out dangerous. Instead of being helpful and life affirming it seems downright harmful and often times life-denying. This is not what we commonly associate with Christianity. Nor with any religious belief system usually. Think of Judaism, one of the most life affirming religions we know of. But with Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses there is a lot of suffering, heavy indoctrination and brainwashing, a strong intimidating corporate hierarchy in place to frighten and control. These systems are not in place to love heal and protect. But rather to frighten people into submission. We just don’t realize it if we’re on the outside of them, because they are trained to NOT tell people what they believe and to try to “act as normal as possible” when in the company of non-Mormons or non-believers. I’d submit that if you have to act in any way that is different when in the company of strangers than you would act when with your own kind that something is wrong from the get-go.
I have no problem if people choose to believe crazy myths and outrageous legends — think of all the lunatics there are out in the world, with their Matrix-like lifestyles or their Renaissance Fair get-ups, etc etc… even if it’s just for fun or the experience of it. But not if they start acting as if it’s “truth” as in “the word of God”, knowingly doing so in a belief system that has already proved to be made up, or stolen from other works, fraudulent or downright dangerous; especially to the good folks they most likely know are being taken advantage of through the perpetuation of these myths and this system. That’s no longer for “fun or a good laugh or a cool experience”. It’s just plan evil. This Church of Later Day Saints as well as the Watchtower organization that controls the JWs seem a very wicked thing. It makes me wonder how the people in it’s leadership are able to continue to defend it or practice it or promote it in good conscience.
I would say that I am flabbergasted that the government allows such things to exist given how dangerous they are, flat out life controlling cults… but I understand that we are very lucky to have a constitutional right to freedom of religion in the United States; think about that for a moment…. In the United States a person can create ANYTHING they want to and call it a religion. One could turn the work of J.R. Tolkein or Game of Thrones into a religion if they wanted to and open up a church and worship a pretend God or anything else they came up with; they could have followers and a congregation and raise as much money as they want to under the pretense of being a “religion” — no matter WHAT they believe. It’s insanely liberal when you think about it. So it’s no wonder that crazy-assed cults like Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormons exist here. And all of this is perfectly legal and protected by law. So the government can’t really do anything about people passing off fantastical science fiction stories as religion and becoming rich beyond measure by doing so. It’s too bad in a way. It feels like we are giving up one thing — protection from being duped, to keep another — protection from religious persecution.
Perhaps it balances itself out in the end. For those of us who have a level head enough to not fall prey to these dangerous ideologies, it probably does balance out. But for those poor folks who do fall prey to them, it’s concerning. Any compassionate person would be greatly concerned about the health and welfare of those who are raised under the chains of these strict and insane belief systems, or even those who come to them later in life, perhaps out of a momentary vulnerability or a sincere longing to have a closer relationship with the Divine. One ponders if we might not be a better society by having some sort of protection mechanism in place. A one stop shop for religious shoppers where they can compare beliefs, ideas, doctrines of faith, testimonials from others, legal records. A health.gov or an Angie’s List for religions. Perhaps that might help people not get sucked into these things so easily and at the same time protect the religious freedom that we enjoy here in the States. The thing is that no matter how good of an idea this is, the religious powers that be in the US would never allow it. They’re so damn rich that they will continue to contribute as much money as is necessary to prevent such a thing from ever becoming even possible, let alone the law. For better or worse, religions still have a huge influence in America. Can’t say I believe that to be a healthy thing.
There is more of course. There is always is. But for now this is enough. If you’re like me, you’ll want to learn more. I’ve embedded a few videos below that will make that easy. Fair warning: frightening stuff. You may never look at these religions the same way again. But that’s a good thing. Consider yourself lucky.
Spiritual Fulfillment and Enlightenment Versus Religion
Nine times out of ten when you tell someone that you’ve had numerous spiritually fulfilling experiences or have achieved enlightenment you’re statement will be met with a doubtful scoff. A cynical laugh and a brush off. You might even encounter anger or righteous indignation by the mere mention of it. After all, true spiritual enlightenment is nearly impossible but for a few select souls; like the Dalai Llama. People are more than willing to believe that the Dalai Llama or the so-called “Buddha” had spiritual enlightenment experiences. But a regular ole normal person? Impossible. And yet the majority of people on planet earth, even those here in the West, still profess to believing in a god and belonging to a religion — many even attend a church regularly. But they find the idea of enlightenment, true spiritual fulfillment very hard to believe in. Especially in others. Why the disconnect?
For one thing, there seems to be a thick line separating what people believe about “God” and how people think about spiritual enlightenment. Perhaps in days past, religion and spirituality used to be tied together, like next of kin. But in modern times, they seem as estranged as Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Existing in different worlds and for completely different purposes. Religion in today’s world seems more to address one’s morals and ethics, along with a sense of community and social status, than it does one’s spiritual fulfillment. Once a person starts on the path of the seeker, searching for truth and spiritual fulfillment, they seem to leave the major religions of the world behind and enter into an alternate world more akin to the esoteric and supernatural. But why? When did religion cut the cord from simple spiritual fulfillment? And what exactly is spiritual fulfillment? What is enlightenment for that matter?
There are countless misconceptions about spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in human mass consciousness. Erroneous assumptions or flat out lies in the form of myths, legends and fairytales that have been indoctrinated into human hearts and minds for centuries and some even for millennia. Very little of what has been written in the way of religion or spirituality is true or even of any use. One learns this fact very quickly once on the path. Almost all of these false facts and erroneous conclusions with very few exceptions come from and are promoted by one form or another of what we call “the world religions”. No matter where we live on planet earth, there is at least one or more “god legends” that is commonly promoted by one or more of these religions. No one, no matter where they happen to be born and grow up on planet earth, is immune from it. Because we are aware that over the last five thousand years human beings have believed in no less than one to five thousand different “gods” — bearing over ten thousand different names by some accounts, it is ironic that each generation is well aware of the numerous “false gods” that humankind “used to believe in”, but they still persist in believing that the NEW god that they believe in NOW is the “one true god” — not one of those old-fashioned “false gods” of the past. This is red flag number one. It’s a presumptuousness that is both sad and laughable.
This is not to say that true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment is not possible, for as many can and have attested to through the ages right through to today, it certainly is possible. For some it is easy. For others it seems a bumpy, rocky, long and challenging road. This difference probably has more to do with the beliefs a person holds, whether consciously or unconsciously, than anything else.
One of the first questions we need to ask is, is a “god” even necessary to achieve true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment? Ask a Buddhist and they will reply “no”. Ask someone who practices any of the Big Four major religions of the world — Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism — and they will emphatically reply “Yes, absolutely. A god is absolutely necessary”. To them, spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment has more to do with their god and their religion than anything else. They go together. One can’t exist without the other. Their religion is their spiritual fulfillment. The god of their chosen religion — whether deliberately chosen or indoctrinated — is the focus of, reason for and cause of their spiritual fulfillment. Which begs another question: is practicing a religion and/or worshiping a god the same as what we refer to as “spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment”? The answer seems to be both yes and no.
For some, practicing a religion, believing in the tenets of a particular religious faith, is less about spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment in the here-now than it is about achieving that state of being in the “after life”. They freely admit and proselytize that the life that we currently inhabit in the here-now on planet earth, in these minds and bodies, is meant to be one of sacrifice in order to achieve spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in the future, after one passes on and dies. This has always struck an odd chord for me personally. There seems to be a major disconnect in this particular belief, even though it is one that is shared by billions of people. Why would we be here if the only purpose was to suffer and struggle through it with nothing to look forward to but the end of it all?
If we examine this belief and the possible origins of it, it is clear that it has very solid and practical applications. When the world’s religions were first formed, life WAS hard, challenging, full of suffering and struggle. The promise of true happiness and fulfillment in the afterlife if one just persevered in this life offered hope. That hope kept people alive, at least long enough to procreate and continue the perpetuation of the species. An important role duty of any living thing. If one is raised to believe that life has no purpose other than struggle and suffering, with no promise of anything at the end of the road, why go on? Why even bother to live until tomorrow? But if one is led to believe from an early age that all one need do is persist in living life to their best ability for as long as they are here and THEN they will be REWARDED with an eternity of infinite bliss and fulfillment in an “afterlife”, then they just might stick around and give it a go. At least long enough to procreate.
But of course, that’s not the only requirement. There’s a catch. Besides sticking around, one is also asked to “believe as we believe, follow these specific sets of rules and laws AND defend them, even to your death if need be” and THEN “you will most certainly be rewarded with an afterlife of eternal bliss and the fulfillment of your greatest dreams and aspirations”. For this, human beings are offered the most outlandish rewards in the “afterlife”, ranging from “seventy-two virgin girls to serve your every wish and command”, to “giant houses one streets paved with gold that sit upon the clouds of heaven”, to “becoming one with God the almighty”. This is a second practical reason for and application of fostering in people a belief that true spiritual fulfillment comes “not in this life, but in the afterlife”: the ability to control those people through heavy indoctrination while they are alive by holding out a reward in the afterlife for them that is just out of reach.
Promote a few men among them to a higher status to act as watchdogs and overseers — priests, bishops, cardinals, rabbis, imams — and a pyramid-like hierarchy of control is made easily possible, where the few can control the many. Throw in some early indoctrination of some form of punishment — either in this life, such as banishment from one’s society, torture or death, or in the afterlife, such as “an eternity in hell” — and along with the reward factor, this control is made even easier.
Now spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in THIS life, here-now, is no longer even desired or contemplated. Everyone is so concerned with this “eternity in an afterlife” that they’ve completely let go of one of the most rational and reasonable human considerations: personal happiness and fulfillment here-now. This is a misconception about life that has plagued humankind for thousands of years, ever since the first major religions were formed; and most don’t even give it a second thought.
But some do. In the modern times that we live in, at least in areas of the world where it is politically allowed — such as in democracies and republics, some people began to contemplate these belief systems taken for granted for so long and by so many and came to conclude that they were implausible at best, downright false propaganda at worst. Ideas such as existentialism — the idea that only what we are able to see, touch, hear, taste, smell or measure in the here-now is all that is; everything else is illusion — began to pop up. Ideas such as agnosticism — the simple notion that we don’t know what we don’t know but are open to anything if at some point it should become clear to be true to us; and even atheism — a sort of anti-religious faith that is just as unreasonable and illogical as religious faith is when it is broken down — a determined belief that one is SURE that a god does not exist. (talk about silly: non-religious people bad mouthing religious people for believing that “God definitely exists” when they are sure that “a god doesn’t exist”. Both flying by the seat of their pants on nothing but faith and faith alone, sure of themselves for no other reason than they want to be, neither of them with any proof to back up their claim. But these are all important steps on the path to spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment.
Most people are often religious as children, atheists when they reach their teens or twenties, and eventually settle into a comfortable agnosticism once they mature. But some reach further. The quest for true spiritual enlightenment.
Breaking the shackles of religious belief based purely on indoctrination, or fear of a torturous afterlife, is a major step, an important one, a necessary one if one is to ever achieve true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. But one needn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, though one can hardly blame them if they are want to do so at first. It’s a predictable first step — once given the freedom to do so, that first illuminating moment when one realizes that the door to the jail cell is no longer locked, some just run out, never look back and never stop running. They stay in perpetual resistance to being held down and controlled by indoctrinated beliefs that make no logical sense to them. But what of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment? Ahhhh, that’s the baby, lying there in a puddle of water struggling for each breath after it’s been tossed out and abandoned. Ask any atheist or agnostic about spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment and they’ll tell you that “it’s all a crock of bs”. They “believe in the here-now”. Happiness is to be created by each individual on their own terms in whatever way they desire. And for them, if it serves them, let it be. Not everyone desires spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. Some are content with just being here, with being alive. And in a way that kind of state of being is an enviable one.
But what about those of us who do long for something more? Once we recognize that the door to the cell is no longer locked, must we too run and never look back? Freeing ourselves of religion and the suffocating false beliefs and illogical assumptions of them does not necessarily imply that we no longer desire true spiritual fulfillment. The fact of the matter is that religion and spiritual fulfillment CAN go hand in hand. But one just doesn’t necessarily equal the other, nor is one required for the other, and vice versa. They are entirely separate animals. Moreso than most religious folks would care to admit. That is why the idea of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is so rarely brought up in religious circles.
In fact, after decades of study, research and practice, one begins to realize that though spiritual fulfillment is quite possible through the practice of any one of the numerous world religions that dominate human consciousness at this time or any other time throughout our history, it may be easier to achieve withOUT the practice of a religion at all. For a myriad of reasons. As noted above, spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is NOT necessarily the number one goal of the world’s major religions in the first place. Some of them freely admit this. Their goal instead is to offer such things in an alleged afterlife.
One also realizes eventually along the path that almost everything that has ever been written about the nature of “god’ or divinity or enlightenment is made up. Especially the stuff of religion. A good rule of thumb: whoever wrote it most likely made it up. Or they’re simply passing on ideas that someone else made up. Many claim that they’re simply acting as a vessel for a “god”, that everything they’ve written was not only divinely inspired, but actually written BY a god. By THE God. It’s an astounding reality when you step away from it for a moment. That an entire race of beings can become so indoctrinated by a belief that they can accept such an outlandish claim. Especially when you sit down and actually read the things that this God supposedly wrote.
Another good rule of thumb: if you know more about the mechanics of the universe than a God who claimed to write through humans, chances are no such thing happened. And such is the case with the sacred writings of the so called “holy books” of all the world’s major religions. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, a holy book of both the Christian and Jewish faith has TWO known authors, two different stories of the “creation of the world” story, two different stories of Noah and the Ark, etc etc. (Yes, of course there’s a possibility that “God wrote through” two different humans, telling the same story, just in case one of them died before they finished publishing. But let’s not speak of possibilities here.) The simple truth is that we all now know more than God supposedly did just two-thousand years ago. And the same goes for the Bagadvagita, the Hindu holy book. That’s an even more outlandish story. Flying monkeys and talking elephants. And the same goes for The Qu’ran. Talk about man creating god and then projecting his own culture and its beliefs onto this god in order to exert power over others. That book is a veritable dictionary entry for man-made religious mumbo jumbo. But so too are the rest of the so called holy books of the world’s major religions. None are exempt from the ridiculous factor. Except for one.
The Tao Te Ching. But by most people’s accounts this is no longer a sacred book of one of the major religions of the world. Perhaps it’s too intelligent. Too rationale. Too modest. Too non-fiction to be considered “truth” by religious people. (irony deliberate). It doesn’t claim to know everything or to be able to solve all the worlds problems. But it is one hell of an intelligent work. Definitely the most sacred, deep, and truthful. And at one time Taoism was considered a world religion. Now it’s shoved into the “non-theist camp” along with Buddhism. For whatever reason most people consider religion to equate “believing in a God”. Though that’s not true either. Scientology is allowed to be called a religion for God’s sake. There’s another one of those red flags.
This idea that a god wrote holy books through human hands may fly for some… indeed we all know deeply religious people; many who I respect and admire greatly. There is a strong desire in human consciousness to believe in a force or entity more powerful than us — it is a temptation that we all succumb to in our weakest moments — AND to be told what to do and what to believe. It is certainly easier than figuring these things out for ourselves. (There’s real work involved in that.) So throw them a book and tell them “god wrote it” and they’ll come running. They’ll devour it. The “Holy Bible” is the best selling book of all time in the history of the human race. There is a logical practical reason for this, as noted above. But what are they running to? What are they devouring? Is it true spiritual fulfillment? Is it enlightenment? Or is it simply the promise of rewards at a later date? In the afterlife? Or is it simple comfort? Belonging to something bigger? A sense of community? A pat on the back with an implied message that “you’re alright, you’re a good person because you believe”. These are powerful motivators. So powerful in fact that they can lead someone off the path of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment and smack into a church pew every Sunday.
Many will tell you that true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment isn’t possible in this life. Some will be very religious. Some will be atheists. They will be highly skeptical if you relay to them that you believe that YOU’VE experienced it yourself. For whatever reason, there seems to be a belief floating around, quite solidly, in mass consciousness that “enlightenment is hard”. Why? Perhaps because life was so hard for we humans for so long… (consider how recent this current stage of peace, freedom and ease of the modern world is in the very long history of humankind…) Or perhaps it’s because the major religions of the world have pounded it into consciousness with such persistence for so long that people started to believe it. If spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is hard, then we need a religion to get there. Along with that need comes a dependance on that religion
Consider for a moment how Tibetan Buddhists for example believe that they must “give up all material possessions and pleasures and isolate themselves from the rest of society and meditate for hours everyday for years” in order to achieve enlightenment. This of course is a ridiculous notion. Completely made up. By someone, human, at some point in history. And then passed down and perpetuated through the ages by others. Not a bit of truth to it. And yet millions adhere to this belief. The same is true for Sikhs. They even go so far as to change their name. Many sects of Hinduism such as Krishna devotees have similar beliefs. They give up literally everything material for the promise of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment.
This is not to say that it doesn’t work. It may work. It may not. But it does illustrate how solidly this belief that “enlightenment is difficult to achieve” is planted in mass consciousness. People tell themselves that because enlightenment is so difficult to achieve, if I go to great lengths to achieve it and sacrifice a lot, then surely I may possibly achieve it. When all along it’s right in front of them. In front of all of us. More on that in a few. But first…
Let us remember, regardless of who it is that is telling us that “spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is hard to achieve” or what they are or where they come from, it doesn’t matter. Because, again, that’s just their belief. And one person’s beliefs have nothing to do with another’s. They’re not applicable. Not relevant. Entirely unimportant. That’s an important something to recognize and never forget. Maybe the most important. Many of us on planet earth are free to believe whatever we want to religiously. But some still are not afforded that liberty. Regardless of what position one is in — because of where they live or how they were raised — it is still just as important to remember: no one can tell another what the truth is regarding spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. It’s all bullshit unless it rings true to YOU. Some may have to fake it. Just to stay alive. Think modern day Islamic societies, (not all of them), where religious beliefs are forced upon their citizens whether they like it or not. Or think The Middle Ages or The Dark Ages, where professing to not being a Christian meant torture, imprisonment or death.
The greatest irony of them all is that a few hundred years before that, the exact same people who were torturing others for NOT being Christian — the Roman Empire disguised as “the catholic church” and all it’s minions, Spain for instance — were doing the exact opposite: torturing and murdering others for BEING a Christian. If that doesn’t open one’s eyes and shed light on just how full of shit the whole system is, then nothing will. Let them be. Enlightenment is not their thing. Being told what to do and doing it in order to feel good about themselves is more important to these individuals than spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. Walk away and wish them peace and a good life.
The truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all magic formula to spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. No spell or incantation, no prayer or ritual, no practice or meditation that is foolproof if you only do it properly and do it long enough. Anyone on the path who is honest with themselves will attest to this in a quiet moment of vulnerable peace and truthfulness. Spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is up to each individual. It may look and feel a little different to each of us. Each may come to it from a slightly different path. But in the bigger picture it always seems to vibrate the same message and generate the same general ideas: unconditional love, peace, acceptance, tolerance and compassion for others… a knowing that all is well, that time is relative, that we are all one, all part of the same thing, whatever that may be, that we are all made of the same stuff, all here for a purpose and yet no purpose. The infinite all that is. The I Am of the I Am. Here before it all. Still here. Here after it’s all gone. Creation embodied. Living breathing pulsating vibrating creation energy. This is the stuff of enlightenment. But usually not the stuff of religion. That’s an odd conundrum.
No matter where a person comes from and how they got there, every attempt to recount what true spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is, sounds and feels relatively the same. It’s uncanny but also refreshing. No matter what time period they lived in or what culture they existed in. Some include a “god” — some form of divinity — in their telling of it; some don’t. Some choose instead to believe that “we are all God”. Most do actually. That God is both separate from us and yet we are all a part of It, a piece of it; tiny fractional particles of some kind of divinity, a “divine force”. This is what has been recounted by those who have sought true spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment. Almost always the same. And usually quite removed from anything that remotely resembles the major religions of the world. It seems there is a wide chasm between spiritual fulfillment and religion or even what religion portends to offer.
Again, not to dismiss the possibility of the two going hand in hand. Certainly possible. I personally have experienced moments of pure spiritually fulfilling bliss and enlightenment through a variety of ways. More often than not, I did NOT have these experiences through the “study” of spiritual material or religious works, nor through the practicing of religion per se. The first few were from mind enhancing drugs, or hallucinogens; LSD, mushrooms, etc. An easy way to access those areas of the brain where such experiences seem to take place, granted. Soon after, I longed to have the same experiences without the use of medicinals, for I felt that if it were possible with the use of said chemicals then it should also be possible without them. If not, then perhaps it wasn’t really enlightenment at all, but just a momentary mental state created by a drug. Let’s face it, cocaine, heroine, marijuana and many pharmaceuticals can also create within the human mind relative states of “bliss”. Not necessarily “enlightenment” per se, that’s for sure. But some very groovy feelings. So off I ventured looking for an even purer, cleaner, truer enlightenment.
The next few times I had the experience of what I would genuinely refer to as “enlightenment” was while using the Avatar tools, after a few days of being on an Avatar Course. No hallucinogens or mind altering drugs. No chemicals. Just a profound desire to achieve enlightenment — as in I really wanted “it” and I was willing to do whatever it takes — and a willingness to be as open minded and vulnerable as one possibly could, like bamboo as opposed to oak. These experiences were even more “spiritually fulfilling” and powerful than the ones I experienced previously, more enlightening. Cleaner. Those experiences of enlightenment that we have on hallucinogens seem to open our hearts and minds to the possibilities of these states, of this knowledge, this knowing. But when we come down, as the drug slowly withdraws from our system, though we never forget what we experienced, it is difficult to hang onto that state of being. It becomes a memory. Rather than a way of being. With Avatar, I have found that simply using the tools and given the right environment I could achieve that state of being repeatedly.
The next time I experienced true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment — and perhaps the most powerful experience thus far in my life — was actually in a church. (Yes, shock… Tell me about it. I was the last person in the world to expect that.) It was certainly not what I was expecting. By then I had already developed the ability of discerning the difference between intuition and mind chatter, and made it a practice to always listen to my intuition. I was told to go in a church as I was walking by it. So I did. I sat there for a few minutes, looking around, admiring the architecture, at first a totally intellectual experience. All from the mind. Within minutes I felt chills all over my body, a state of pure bliss, of feeling more love, more beloved, than I ever have before. It was ecstasy. (Better than the drug Ecstasy. Much better… truly. And I don’t say that lightly.) A voice whispered in my ear, “This is how much God loves you Ed. God loves you so so much…” This went on for quite a while. The same words, over and over, slightly different wording, but the same intention. Ten minutes or more. I bathed in it. I was not scared. I was enraptured, in heaven. In love. Filled with joy. Tears slowly streamed from my eyes. There was no denying it. This was a truly supernatural enlightenment experience. A few minutes later I came to realize that I had been sitting there for a half hour or more — I probably looked ridiculous to any onlookers — my head was bowed, drooling slightly, tears pouring down my cheeks.
I had many more spiritually fulfilling enlightenment experiences after that in that same location, hearing voices — not really voices as much as messages. There is just something special there. God speaks. His presence is there. It’s an otherworldly experience. One no one who occasions the place takes lightly. This is why I have always contended that those who do not believe in God or a Divine Force or enlightenment or anything else supernatural feel this way because they simply have not had any experiences like this. They have every right not to believe. They’ve never had any to believe. They’re trapped in their mind. Attempting to think it through. Never realizing that enlightenment is not a think-it thing. It’s a feel-it thing. One can’t think their way to enlightenment. Book reading may be interesting. But it doesn’t get us anywhere. You’d have a better shot at experiencing true enlightenment from sitting on a hilltop in a beautiful locale for a few minutes or hours and just meditating on the nature of the universe than you would from reading a book. This is why I don’t blame those who don’t believe; never judge them. They’re simply acting on what they know.
But I’ll tell you this. If one desires to experience enlightenment, it is possible. And chances are, they will. If one longs to know God, to know the nature of the Divine, it is possible. And chances are, they will. Because it is. It’s an isness. I sometimes wonder if not all things are possible, if not all things that the mind can conceive are a potential isness. If we just allow them to be. After all, it is we who are creating what we are experiencing. Long for Divinity enough and there’s a good chance that you’ll take actions to one day experience it. You’ll create the belief and through that, the experience.
Joel Osteen Teaches Avatar and Abraham Hicks
Over the weekend I was watching the excellent “Ascent of Money” documentary, when in the corner of my eye I spotted another video that also looked interesting; several in fact. Even though I was completely entrenched in The Ascent of Money movie, I didn’t want to forget about this other one that caught my eye. So as not to miss it, I clicked on it in order to share it publicly, to FB or Twitter or even Instagram, and ask people to let me know if it was any good or not. That video was entitled “Our History is Not What We Think“. As soon as I clicked on it to save to a playlist and share it I found myself completely captivated by its content. It’s one hell of a ride. So I began watching IT instead. (Don’t you hate when that happens?)
Most of it is stuff that we’ve already seen or heard before. It’s more than a tad challenging for yours truly at this point to find anything I haven’t already seen or heard of or studied– outside of the ever expanding “tech” underworld that is. Much of the material in this one hour animated presentation seems to be based on the work of Drunvalo Melchizedek. This guy is WAY out there, mind you. By most people’s account he’d be considered a total crackpot, IF they’d heard of him or his work, which they haven’t. His focus is on something he terms The Flower of Life, a pseudo-science theory roughly arranged around sacred geometry, tantric sex and ancient alien theories. I had first started studying him back in the mid-nineties, long before there was a thriving internet or animated YouTube presentations to lend credibility to outlandish claims. Back then we would trade paperback books and pamphlets, rough-copied VHS tapes or snail-mailed cheaply printed newsprint quarterly newsletters in this very hush-hush underground world of alternate history and conspiracy theories. Now there are whole TV shows and networks dedicated to this kind of thinking. Like all things once “niche” it too has become rather mainstream.
In a nutshell the basic idea of this particular “alternate history” movie is that humankind has forgotten it’s real history and has instead embraced the much newer history that the major religions and empires of the world have put forth more recently in our history — think Roman Empire, Christendom, Islam or the British Empire. Nothing too outlandish about that. Perfectly believable premise frankly. Anyone who has really studied the underbelly of human history understands that our true history has been lost for ages and replaced by a revisionist history that is always being written and rewritten by whichever group happens to be in control at the time; in other words — the meanest strongest toughest or cruelest people at any given time in our slow evolution as a species rewrites our shared history in their own image and demands that everyone believe. And for the most part, most people do.
But from that first point of feasibility, the documentary leaps out onto a slippery slope so outlandish that it’s more entertainment than believable academic study. It questions how the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian cultures were so advanced, how the Mayans were able to create the world’s most accurate calendar or have an understanding of the precession of the equinox; brings into light ideas about alternate universes, higher dimensions, the Tree of Life, the Flower of Life, the Merkaba, the Talmud, the Kabala, Ascended Masters, Spirit Guides, you name it. It even asserts that the Hebrews are a non-earthly lifeform that emigrated to earth tens of thousands of years ago, along with the Martians and the Greys. Nothing new in here. Heard it all before. Just all put together quite neatly and succinctly. For the pure pleasure of taking the trip, it’s more than enjoyable, and if this kind of knowledge does interest you, there are tidbits here and there that are interesting.
I was fascinated by the onslaught of comments in the right-hand column by people infuriated that anyone would or could possibly believe such “nonsense” — especially the religious lot of them. They spoke as if the video’s very existence was an insult to their life. Many engaged in endless debates with others filled with angry tirades, misspelled words, red herrings, non-sequitors, slippery slope assertions, ad hominem attacks and insults and the worst grammar this side of kindergarten. I’ve never understood the merit of arguing with someone who you don’t know personally, will never meet and whom you have nothing in common with. Especially when you’re in a public place and on their turf. It’s one thing, if that’s your schtick and you wholeheartedly disagree with what you consider blatant misinformation. But if you’re a practicing theist, you’ve already stepped out onto the ledge and into the land Oz. So why bother starting a fight with people who have absolutely no conception of your view of the world and no intention of changing theirs? More than anything, the video — though it claims to offer a realistic alternative take on human history if one just opens their mind — is so far fetched that I can’t believe anyone would take it any more seriously than the latest sci-fi flick. I certainly don’t get why anyone would bother arguing the merits of such outlandish claims. Especially when they themselves are already professing to believe equally outlandish belief systems such as any of the Big Four religions that have so preoccupied humankind over the last two-thousand years.
It did get me thinking though. About a subject that I have been meaning to write about for some time. What we find on planet earth presently is a variety of different groups of people who each believe a different set of religious or spiritual beliefs or principles that all seem opposed to one another — which has been one of the major causes of war and bloodshed in our short recorded history on earth. Christians will tell you that new agers are all wrong; as will Muslims or other theist types. New Agers will claim that those who practice any of the Big Four religions are brainwashed and closed-minded. Atheists consider the whole lot of them crackpots. Which I think is hilarious since atheism itself is just as whacky and far fetched a religion as any of the Big Three or Four (depending on if you include Hinduism in the group). It’s just the opposite side of the same coin, Atheism that is. There is a God. There isn’t a God. Okay…. prove it. Right? Impossible on either side. So I tend to be more open minded, choosing instead to take the “honestly I have no idea” view. You can’t prove there is no “god” any more than you can prove that there is a “god”. Taking either side is pointless and reeks of ignorance, or at least a mind that is not very well thought out.
For example we know that Christianity is not an original idea, but a ragtag amalgam of different belief systems that stem from primarily paganism, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman mythology. Islam is pretty much the same thing but just the 7th century Arabian’s version of it. Judaism stems from Persia’s Zoroastrianism along with a variety of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, and Pagan beliefs with a good lot of ancient Greek mathematics thrown into it, which lends a more mystical feel to the more esoteric aspects of it, and a hell of a lot of “our God is the best and strongest and he likes us the best” type of survivalist rhetoric. Judaism is very Darwinian in that respect: cultural survival of the fittest speak disguised as religion.
All the major Big Four religions currently being obsessed over by human beings have much in common and tend to agree more than disagree when you break them all down. The primary difference between them all is that THEIR GOD just happens to be “the best” and prefer THEM as “his chosen people” more than any other people. There’s an anthropological irony to it all that is so obvious that it makes it hard not to laugh when pondering or writing about it. If there had not been so much human life lost and so much misery caused by all of them through the centuries, this laughter would be a bit easier and not always feel so distasteful. But one just cannot get beyond the fact that as hysterically irrational and laughable modern religious systems are, they’re also extremely dangerous to the general survival of the human species in general; especially if you don’t happen to subscribe to one of them at any given moment in history — depending on who is in control at the time. Presently it’s the Christians and Jews running things with the Muslims in a close second. The Hindus have given up being in control in modern times, so they’re perfectly content letting their religious beliefs play second fiddle to the rest of them and being a punch-line to numerous jokes about “how many Gods they have” etc. In this respect, Hinduism has more a chance of serving the sincere seeker more simply because the religion itself has less need to prove it’s rightness or political import and believers can focus more on just using the beneficial aspects of the belief system to their own personal advantage rather than worry about how strong of a grip the religion itself has on the mechanisms of modern society or its politics.
To get back to this documentary, if we forget the more primitive legends and myths associated with the religions explored in it, it’s mind boggling how mathematically advanced early humans were when you begin to study the more esoteric Judaic writings. PI, The Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Sequence all come into play in early Judaism, which is more than impressive and suspicious. Advanced stuff for a people supposedly extremely “primitive” and still given to animal sacrificing and blanket misogyny. But again, the perception we have today of Judaism or Christianity is the “modern accepted view” of Judeo-Christian beliefs, AFTER both the rabbis of that day AND the Roman Empire stripped anything remotely intelligent from the writings or teachings offered to the masses. [This in and of itself is one of the greatest cons and conspiracies perpetrated on humans by humans in the history of humankind.] The real meat of both these religions is available to anyone interested in digging a bit deeper. Some of it can be quite advanced. It’s just not knowledge you’ll find being preached about or taught in modern churches or synagogues. Instead you get Noah and the Ark, Adam and Eve, Joseph’s magic coat and Jesus being born in a manger on December 25th when just about everyone knows that Jesus wasn’t even born in the winter, let alone December. But for now these principles seem to work for most people. If they only knew…
Speaking personally, it’s no big secret that I personally practice a loose version of Christianity, belong to the Methodist denomination and even attend and volunteer at a real church on a regular basis. It’s also no great mystery that I’m also an avid student of Avatar, Abraham Hicks, Sedona Method, quantum mechanics, witchcraft and high magic, ancient alien theory and just about anything “new age”, supernatural or paranormal if it interests me. I justify such apparent contradictions in my own belief system by stating that “it works for me”. And in the end, whatever works for you and doesn’t hurt anyone else, should be tolerated by others no matter how different it may be from what works for them. That’s the truly libertarian way to view the world and our fellow man. Frankly I don’t really see that much contradiction between Christian theology and New Age thinking, IF you understand the basics underneath them all.
You just have to, one, go to the roots — learn the history — the real history, and two, learn how to read between the lines. Let’s take two rather popular –though seemingly opposite and contradictory — viewpoints and break them down to show just how similar they really are. On the one hand we have the Theist viewpoint: this would include any of the Big Four religions of modern humankind, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. All contend that a great and powerful all-knowing/seeing God exists who can hear our inner-most thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears and desires and does his or her best to intercede in our lives when we need it. If we pray to him or her, we have a better chance of experiencing the life of our dreams; because “God answers our prayers”. Take Joel Osteen as an example of your average Christian leader. Osteen is a friend. He’s someone I admire. [Though I must admit he sadly disappointed me a few years ago when he publicly flip-flopped on his views of homosexuals and “God’s view of them”, stating “I have plenty of homosexuals in my congregation and God loves all of his flock equally, I’m sure. But I couldn’t in good conscience attend a wedding or officiate at a wedding between two same-sex couples, because I believe that homosexuality is a sin.” This was a very different viewpoint than what Joel had previously professed just a few short months before. He was obviously feeling the heat from the bigger community of Christian pastors around the country — the so-called Moral Majority or Christian Right. Too bad. Because up until that point, Joel really held a great advantage over the rest of this group, even gaining access to people like me, those in the world of the intelligencia who would normally never even give someone like him the time of day. But I’m still holding out hope for Joel. One day he’s going to regret ever saying something so silly and small-minded. I trust in his connection with the Divine. He’s going to come around…]
So… Joel Osteen. He leads the largest congregation of Christians in the United States. He’s adored by millions and apparently hated by an equal number of people who find his brand of Christianity too wish-washy and easy. These types prefer a more stern and conservative “God” construct. They think that Joel is “perverting God’s word”. Little do they know that we’ve been doing that since the moment that we decided to attempt to write down “god’s thoughts” in the first place. As if. Joel preaches a very New Age version of Christianity. Yet he still calls it Christianity. His style has caught on with millions of people all over the world. He focuses less on God’s wrath and more on God’s love. The reason why this has caught such fire with so many people all over the world is because this idea resonates with something that we as human beings have been feeling in our hearts about our own view of “god” for hundreds of years. We just couldn’t shout it out loud because up until Joel (and plenty of others before him to be fair) came along, it just didn’t seem to vibe with what the general consensus of “god” was in mass consciousness. The Unity Church had been preaching this same thing for a hundred years at least. So too had Marianne Williamson and plenty of others. Joel just took it mainstream by cloaking it in traditional Christianity.
Personally, I’ve always found Joel to be an admirable person and an inspiring speaker. His sermons, though never as intelligent or thought provoking as say Stephen Bauman’s — perhaps the most intellectual Christian speaker of our time, are always moving and inspiring. One thing is certain about him: he wholeheartedly believes in a Divine Power in the universe that knows us, loves us and we can access from this dimension (call it the earthly dimension) through prayer. If one prays enough, they can create the life that they desire because God answers our prayers. He claims that his mother cured herself of cancer through prayer — that God cured her of cancer — and that the doctors and hospitals have confirmed this fact and consider it “a miracle”. I have no problem believing this. But perhaps not for the same reasons that Joel and his mother do.
Let’s take the other side of the coin: the so-called New Age theories about the mechanics of the universe. We can use Avatar as an example of it, or the Sedona Method, or Abraham Hicks or even the recent New Age phenomenon of the century — that movie The Secret. The basic theory of all these systems is that “we ourselves are creating our own reality based on our beliefs or vibrations”. If we change our beliefs, if we change our vibrations, we can change our experiences. That’s it in a nutshell. Some belief systems subscribe to a Divine Power at play. And some don’t, instead choosing to skip over that whole paradigm. Some call this divine power “The Universe” or “The Great Spirit” or “The Force” or “Source”…. None of that really matters. What matters is that these systems promote a more pro-active technique for reality creation, i.e. rather than praying to a God to create our lives for us, we create our own lives based on our beliefs and our general vibration. To me this ideology has always felt much less like a victim mentality than pure religiosity, which tends to promote a more sublimated approach to beingness; one must sublimate themselves to this divine all powerful force in the universe to be in “good favor” with it.
We can dissect the pros and cons of both systems ad infinitum, going as deep as humankind ever has, quote the greats and the not so greats till we’re blue in the face and our ego is as big as a hot air balloon, and still not actually get anywhere. This is called “going to seminary” or “becoming a rabbi or an Imam or a priest” in the religious world or “becoming ordained” in the New Age world. A lot of studying and memorizing things that other men made up. But we’re going to skip over all that and head right to the main thesis.
These two systems, the Theist view versus the New Age view, seem diametrically opposed to one another. One preaches a higher power is in control of everything — in an almost fatalistic sense, and one preaches that WE are actually in control of everything that happens to us. I tend to fall right smack dab in the middle of these two groups. Or completely outside of them. Depending on how one looks at it. Being an avid student of science, especially more advanced and esoteric quantum physics, I believe it is only a matter of time before science discovers that there really is a “Divine Force” in the universe. Einstein called it the Unified Field Theory — he was looking for the “fifth force” in the universe that controls the other four forces (those being gravity, electro-magnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces) and helps them to all work together. At present science is having a tough time figuring out how the current four forces in the universe all work together so seamlessly when they appear to be so opposed to each other. Especially gravity. He believed that there was a fifth force at play that we just hadn’t discovered yet. Science has come very close as of late to discovering this fifth force. Some assert that Dark Matter and Dark Forces are that fifth force. Some say that we’re still hypothesizing and haven’t proven the existence of Dark Matter or the Dark Forces. Some say that we have yet to discover this fifth force. Some claim that it may lie in the boson, the so-called “god particle”. Personally I don’t think that possessing a knowledge of the names of things is half as important as having an understanding of how it all works. An innate tangible or palpable understanding, as in knowing how to harness the power of these systems, regardless of whether one knows the names that man has arbitrarily attached to them or not.
Either way, I believe there is a good chance that in our lifetimes we will discover this fifth force, and that yes indeed it will tie all the other ones together quite neatly and explain a lot of what we have heretofore considered mysteries of the cosmos. Will it be “God”? Well that all depends on how attached one is to needing to believe that “God” resembles human beings. See, that’s the problem with modern theists’ view of “god”. They seem to have an uncontrollable and inexplicable need for “god” to resemble humankind. They’re all caught up in that whole “God created Man in his image” nonsense. So they’re expecting “god” to be a living breathing intelligent life-like organism. Fat chance. As I have explored numerous times here already, God is most likely a force alright, a mighty big and powerful one; but he/she/it is probably much less life-like and much more like “consciousness” itself. Without the need for an external body or vehicle to get around in. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that “God” is probably just a giant ball or cluster of all consciousness that’s ever existed since the existence of the universe itself. And in that respect, “god” would not be physical at all. Though that shouldn’t stop scientists from searching for it. They’re definitely onto something in their exploration of Dark Matter or anti-matter and these mysterious bosons. The invisible equal to all things that are visible in the known universe.
So let us say that there is this pulsating Divine Power or Force in the universe that just IS…. It’s an “isness” more than a physical being. It’s most likely “being-less” that still “is”. But that doesn’t preclude it from being “something”. It could still be a very powerful force, perhaps the all-powerful force that theists have postulated for millennia. It just might not be a living breathing organic being in the human being/animal sense of the word. This is why some New Age thinkers tend to just refer to it as “the universe”. I personally don’t prefer this label, “the universe”, because as we already know that the universe as we currently label it is nothing but a giant vacuum that holds all that is. This force either exists inside of “the universe” — is a part of it, OR exists OUTside of it and holds all that is, including the universe, inside of IT. Either way, we fit in somewhere in this equation, albeit quite possibly in a very small near miniscule way. And there’s a good chance that WE as living breathing organic life-streams with access to consciousness can access this powerful force.
THIS is why prayer works. AND this is also why creating and discreating and changing our beliefs and vibration works. Either technique is going to achieve some kind of result, because both techniques summon this force. Some might say that through prayer they are accessing “God” and that “God is granting their wish to come true” because they’ve been good pray-ers. Others might say that because they’ve changed their beliefs and are thus vibrating more closely to that which they wish to experience that THEY are then more easily able to create the outcomes they desire. Both techniques seem to “work”.
In my humble opinion, both parties are doing pretty much the same thing. They’re just calling it different things. If a person walks around all day asserting that “God is my protector. God wants me to be healthy and happy and prosperous. God loves me and takes care of me”, and they experience this, are they not just talking themselves into believing this? And through believing this, are they not then vibrating this? In turn creating it as a reality? No different really than someone else who skips the “god” part of the equation entirely and simply asserts “I deserve to be happy and healthy and prosperous. I am filled with love. My life is wonderful”. They too experience the same outcome. Why? Because through constant affirmation of said statements they are slowly shifting their beliefs toward these vibrations and hence creating these experiences for themselves.
Both are really doing the same thing. Whether they include a “god” in it or not. Perhaps there is a great and all powerful force at play. This force is indeed helping to control and sustain the other four forces in the universe AND consciousness itself. Through connecting with and aligning with this force, any conscious being can create reality. Through affirming good things, we are attaching ourselves in consciousness to the more positive aspect of this force and using it to help create the outcomes that we desire in our lives that we consider to be “good”. And vice versa. Plenty of very bad things have been created in the world in the “name of God” and have manifested. Slavery, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Genocide of the Native Americans… How do we explain “God” being all-good when humans have consistently used this force called “god” to do some very bad things throughout history? Unless this force doesn’t actually judge whether things are “good” or “bad”. Perhaps as some people claim, “god” is just a force that doesn’t recognize the duality of good and bad. I sincerely doubt it. But that’s just me wishful-thinking — attaching my own human views of good and bad onto my desired view of what “god” might be like. Not very fair to “god”. But how can I help it? I want there to be a “god” and I want him/her/it to be “good”. The problem of course is that one person’s “good” is another person’s “bad” is another person’s “who cares”.
If we choose instead to view “god” as a pure force… a pure energy… one that can be harnessed for both good or bad… by any organic organism — and I hesitate to limit consciousness to being solely organic in nature only — so instead let’s change that to “any state of consciousness”… — then what that means is that anyone or anything that extends enough will and effort to access this “god force” can do so and can use it to create whatever they so choose. Think Star Wars and the idea of “the Force”. When Joel Osteen advises us to walk around all day affirming how much god loves us and how much god wants us to succeed and be happy, in essence he’s really just advising us to do whatever it takes to change our “state” (Tony Robbins and NLP) or change our vibration (The Secret and Abraham Hicks) or change our beliefs (Avatar and Sedona Method) in order to create the reality that we prefer. He’s just using the “god” idea because it’s been so pre-programmed and indoctrinated into human consciousness for so many thousands of years. So for many people, it really helps them to think that “god” is at play in their lives. What they’re really doing of course is changing their state or beliefs or vibrations. And in exchange for them doing this, they can sometimes experience that their greatest wishes and desires come true in their lives. Why? They claim it’s because God answers prayers. But it might just be that they’ve begun to align themselves or their vibration with that which they prefer to experience through incessant affirmation and thought THROUGH praying. [Ultimately does it really make a difference?]
Or perhaps there really IS a “god” in the universe and that’s why prayer works AND that’s why affirmations and changing our state or beliefs or vibration helps — because through doing so we are more readily attaching our own consciousness to “god’s” and he in turn is picking up on what we’re sending out and rewarding us by granting us our deepest desires and wishes. Who knows?
The simple truth is that NO ONE really knows. Anyone who claims to know — be that person a rabbi or pastor or priest or pope or Imam or spiritual leader — is not being honest. They’re lying. At best they’re fooling themselves, through latching on to a quasi-state of a mass-consciousness belief system, participating in a state of mass hypnosis, no different than they did when they claimed “god supported and condoned slavery”. At worst, they know they’re not being honest, but benefitting too greatly from it to admit it. But in reality, most any intelligent or rational person we’d ever sit down in a quiet place with and talk one to one with would admit that they have no more a clue as to if a “god” exists in the world than the next person. And that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s preferable to someone who would swear up and down that they really believe that they KNOW that a “god” exists. After all, one day we’re going to be called out on this belief. And “god” help the man whose bluff is called and they can’t summon the power of this great and all powerful “god” when they need to. Best to keep the jury out on this one I say.
But absolutely nothing wrong with admitting that we’d LOVE for there to be a “god” in the universe, regardless of what form it decides to take or not take, visible or invisible. The real meat of the issue is that it does appear that we ARE capable of creating our experiences, our lives, our day to day experiences and circumstances… and the “how” is in our beliefs and vibrations. The true scientific mechanisms of how all this works we will leave to the scientists as we always have. One day I am sure they will figure it all out and let us know what’s really going on. In the meantime, we at least have a clue as to how to make things work out better for ourselves or at least more in our favor. And that’s a very good thing.